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FORT MYERS — Florida is meant for sitting down, in the sun, on a beach towel.

That’s how you could find Kati Sliter early Friday evening, as her beloved Cincinnati Reds took batting practice before their second game of the spring season.

Sliter sat with Amy Wallace, her friend from back home, as their husbands enjoyed a cold beverage on Hammond Stadium’s new lawn seating area beyond the right-field line.

“Best seats in the house,” Kati said, juggling a baseball she’d had signed by three Reds players. “You feel more a part of the game.”

Those two Cincinnati couples — Jeff and Kati, Jim and Amy — were the first inhabitants of the berm, which debuted Friday when the Minnesota Twins opened their home schedule.

That wasn’t the only thing new, however. Other first-time attractions were Dugout Box seats behind the backstop and the drink rail above the lawn seating area.

Bill and Shirley Ayers, from Coon Rapids, Minn., broke in the drink rail, a collection of 65 standing positions. The retirees arrived at their $12 “seats” about an hour before the first pitch, though they knew there’d be no place to sit.

The drink rails are aluminum bar tops about three feet off the ground. Fans can lean on them, of course, but they must stay standing.

Bill didn’t mind.

“No,” the 73-year-old said. “We’re plenty tough.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Geoffrey and Robbie Roepstorff sat roughly 60 feet from home plate. They occupied two of the 120 Dugout Box seats new to the stadium, up-close chairbacks that stretch from dugout to dugout.

The bonus: With each $35 seat is a concession-stand menu, and a waitress to take your order.

The Roepstorffs had a lady named Susan Reade to serve them. She wore a blue Twins cap, a red Twins T-shirt and a big Twins smile.

“You get this nice of seats,” Reade said, “you don’t want to get up and move around.”

Back on the berm, the Cincinnati couples soaked up the sun. More folks would arrive soon enough, but for now they had the entire lawn to themselves.

The tickets were $12 apiece, far less than you’d pay to get this kind of view in Cincinnati. The vacationers couldn’t help but take it all in.

“Spring fever,” Jim Wallace said. “We’re getting ready for baseball.”

With beach towels, at that.

NOTES: Friday’s game was one of six early sellouts for the Twins, who play 17 times this spring in Hammond Stadium. However, standing room tickets remain available for all Twins games. ... The Twins announced that games would be available on radios within Hammond Stadium on 88.3 FM. The project was initiated in early January when Twins fan Francis Lymburner sent the club an e-mail asking about radio availability so a visually impaired family member could listen.